Why are my peanut butter cups discolored?

If you are experiencing white coating on your peanut butter cups, it is actually the result of warmer temperatures causing changes in the cocoa butter and peanut butter center. In production, if the chocolate does not completely form together to trap the peanut buttery goodness inside the chocolate, it can leave this white residue/coating on the peanut butter cups. The product is perfectly safe to consume!

If your peanut butter cups appear lighter in color, this is a result of cocoa bloom, which is very common in nut containing chocolate candies made without preservatives. Exposure to cool temperatures following warm temperatures may affect the formulation and, as a result, this may cause the chocolate to appear whitish or even make the dark chocolate look like milk chocolate.